Edelbrock Hot Street also saw an underdog make
it to the final. Max Gross used his traditional
starting line prowess to get past John Paterimos
and the always tough Mike Curcio to meet Charlie
Booze Jr. in the final. Booze won the first
two events of the year and was looking for the
hat trick in Columbus. He got it, running a
9.06 to overcome Grosss 9.22.

ProCharger EFI Renegade had 15 Mustangs entered,
led by defending class champion Kurt Gallant.
But when Monday came, Gallant ran into trouble
and fell to Brian Mitchell in the second round.
The semis featured Mitchell taking on Zoop Zellonis
and Bob Cook facing veteran Renegade racer Bob
Kurgan. Mitchell took out Zellonis, and Cook
pulled off the upset to get past Kutgan, setting
up a blower versus nitrous final round. Mitchell
had been marginally quicker all weekend, so
the odds were in his favor, but Cook got him
on the tree and stayed out front, winning with
an 8.856 at 151 mph to a quicker and faster
8.842 at 153 mph.

All 12 of the BFGoodrich Drag Radial field
stayed for Mondays eliminations, and all
eyes were on number one qualifier Trace Meyer.
Meyer took out Jason Lee in the first round
and looked to put a hurtin on Chip Provenza
in the second, but Provenza unloaded an insane
8.450 at 167 mph pass to get past Meyers
also great 8.505 at 164 mph. Phil Clemmons took
our class champ Chris Little with the quickest
pass in the classs history, a brutal 8.343.
Dave Hopper also advanced, and then took out
Clemmons in the semis, while Provenza got the
bye. In the final, Hopper left first, but slowed
to a 9.00 while Provenza won with an 8.936 at
169 mph.

5.0 Mustang Real Street also had all 14 cars
stay for eliminations. Tim Matherly, winner
of the first two events, qualified in fourth
place with his supercharged modular Mustang,
behind Bruce Hemminger, Chris Tuten, and Robin
Lawrence. But it was Matherly in the final round,
thanks to consistent 9.80s. In the other
lane was Hemminger who had run as quick as 9.73
in eliminations. Matherly got out first with
a .063-second advantage and laid down a stellar
9.69 at 139 mph pass to take out Hemmingers
nitrous car.

For the third race in a row, Gene Hindman and
Rich Groh met in the final round of Tremec Pure
Street. Hindman won the first two races at Bradenton
and Silver Dollar, so Groh was looking for some
payback. He got it at National Trail in one
of the closest races of the weekend. When the
two cars crossed the finish line, the scoreboards
showed identical elapsed times of 10.579! Grohs
.020-second starting line advantage made him
the winner.